Feels Like the First Time

Sometimes a bit of chaos is the creative spark you need.

If you're reading this during the first week of November when this blog drops, I'm somewhere in the Mexican Caribbean on the fourth PromoCruise. At this point, you'd think that organizing and running a networking event would be some variation of "wash, rinse, repeat." However, for a variety of reasons, this PromoCruise feels very much like the first time – and I'm not talking about the 1977 hit song from Foreigner.

As I mentioned, this is the fifth event and fourth PromoCruise that my Promocations business partner, Josh Robbins, and I have executed. While some things were very much the same in terms of event planning, things proved to be very different in many other areas, some of which were intentional and some of which were not.

Unintended Changes

Some of you may know, this cruise was supposed to take place in March, not November. In early February, we received news from our cruise line partner that our ship, the Enchantment of the Seas, needed to enter dry dock for repairs and that our sailing had been canceled. For those of you who have ever planned an event, that's not great news. Obviously, this was something entirely out of our control, and we had no choice but to work with Royal Caribbean and our contracted hotel and restaurant to move the entire event later in the year.

It wasn't ideal, but I was really delighted that Josh and I didn't complain about the issue; we kept very calm heads, talked through possible scenarios, and quickly rescheduled the cruise to the best of our abilities. We then communicated directly with our customers – the supplier sponsors – to ensure they were on board (pun intended) and then spoke with each distributor guest. Judging by the response and support from our PromoCruisers, they were happy with the outcome.

Lesson: In moments of crisis, it doesn't do any good to moan about what can't be controlled. Control what you can, be decisive, and communicate directly with your customers.

Intended Changes

For the previous four sailings of the PromoCruise, we had a formula that worked, and we stuck to it: We held our opening reception at an old-school Florida tiki bar, which was right on the water and had phenomenal ceviche. We stayed at a swanky hotel with a sweet rooftop pool, which was a five-minute walk to the tiki bar. We were on the same ship and always made sure we hit Royal Caribbean's private island, Coco Cay, on every sailing. In other words, it was comfortable.

For us, it became too comfortable and, to ensure the long-term viability of our events, we intentionally decided to change things up:

• We traded Fort Lauderdale for Tampa

• We swapped Marriott at Dania Pointe for the Hilton in downtown Tampa

• We switched from Paradise Tiki to the Gen X Tavern

• We moved on from Liberty of the Seas to the Enchantment of the Seas

• We skipped Coco Cay for Costa Maya

On the surface, that likely doesn't look like a change that would cause any extra work. However, when you peek below that surface, you realize that after years of a proven playbook, we had to start everything from scratch:

• Scout a new hotel location that is convenient for our guests while ensuring it is commensurate with our previous events.

• Find a new opening dinner location that was within walking distance of the hotel, had a fun vibe, served solid food, and gave our group a great experience.

• Form new relationships with excursion partners in Mexico and make all necessary arrangements for a memorable day of bonding.

• Plan for different timing and locations for our on-ship events with our partners at Royal Caribbean – all while navigating the weather situation in that part of the world this time of year.

When you add the fact that the majority of the planning was compressed into a twelve-week timeline between our Los Cabos event in July and today, I assume you get the idea. Even so, all the additional planning truly made this feel like when we planned our first event, as both the anxiety and excitement of "new" provided a ton of creative energy. Not that we needed an injection of energy, but we knew it was time to change things up so our events never feel stale.

Lesson: The moment you feel comfortable is precisely when it's time to question what you're doing and get out of that comfort zone. Doing so keeps your perspective fresh and allows you to find creative solutions to different challenges.

Time will tell how the changes made – intentional or unintentional – impact the overall experience. Honestly, there's some joy in the mystery of not knowing exactly how things will turn out. Perhaps that’s the secret: no matter how many times you do something, it should always feel a little like the first time.